Friday, 30 November 2012

As we head into the last few weeks of the year the topic of leadership is coming up a lot in out class.

Room 15 has been lucky to have some fantastic leaders this year from our Year 8s. Some of the students have had formal roles like student councillor or sports committee but there have also been a lot of students who have stepped in the class making sure that our class runs smoothly.

Year 7s you have big shoes to fill next year.

I had a lollypop moment regularly on the train. The train conductors in the morning are always so happy and crack a few jokes. It always makes me smile even on a cold, rainy day.

Have you had a lollypop moment? Did you the tell the person that the effect of their kindness or goofiness had on you?

How can you give people the lollypop moment that Drew talks about in the movie?

Monday, 26 November 2012

In case you haven't guessed already this week we are practicing the art of formal letter writing. Although most business is conducted via email these days it is still important to know how to write a formal letter for job applications or perhaps in support of an application.

Your task for the week is to write a letter imparting your words of wisdom for the Year 6s coming to Tawa Intermediate School.

Because we haven't posted on our blogs in a couple of weeks I think it is important to go over good posting. Your letter should make a positive connection with the reader (and a reminder anyone can read your work). Don't give out too much information (notice how I used my room, in my house, somewhere in Wellington and sign off using only my first name). You also need to show that you have used all the key elements of a formal letter.

Formal letters have key elements that must appear in order.

Your address.

The recipient’s address (who you’re sending the letter to).

The date

The salutation (Dear so and so)

The opening paragraph (why you are writing)

A couple of main points

A closing paragraph

The closing greeting (your sincerely if you know the person, yours faithfully if you do not)

Your signature/name.

So a reminder you are writing a letter to the incoming year 6s about your words of wisdom on how to make the most of intermediate school. I hope you enjoy this weeks task and I look forward to reading your letters.

I heard on the radio that Saturday was International Buy Nothing Day. I didn't do so well as I needed to buy ingredients for my sister's wedding cake. I bought a lot of stuff but then I baked the cake with my sister so that was fun as we don't see that much of each other.

Did you or your family go shopping on Saturday?

Did you stop to think about what you might be doing if the shops weren't open?

When I was your age, the shops were closed every Sunday and didn't stay open late at night. Since 1990 shops were allowed to open 24 hours a day except on Christmas day, Easter Friday and Sunday, as well as half of ANZAC. Day

Who do you think benefited from the shops being shut once a week?

Who might not be so happy with the shops being shut once a week?

What would happen if the government announced that shops were forced to shut once a week?

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

One of our home learning tasks for this term was called from Trash to Fab. The brief was to take an item that would otherwise be thrown away and make it into something awesome. Here our resident Tolkien fan Sammiiee has taken an old piece of carpet and some egg cartons and turned it into a map of West Middle Earth. Awesome work Sammiiee!

Wednesday, 14 November 2012

We were lucky in Room 15 to have a cracker of a day for the total eclipse. Although Wellington is a bit far South to enjoy the full effect, we had some fun using old and new technology to help us enjoy the event.

Nate is enjoying the skyview view app on the ipad.

Skyview is an augmented reality app which overlays graphics onto the scene in front of us.

After morning tea, we ventured up to Tawa college for some more viewing. Tawa college had some filters to view the eclipse.

Tawa College also had some proper telescopes for the students to look at the eclipse.

This is the most complete eclipse New Zealand will see until July 22, 2028. Hard to believe that the students will be almost into their 30s by then!